


Mistrust

by catie_writes_things



Series: Trust Issues [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Suspicions, background Adrienette - Freeform, in which gabriel cyberstalks because he cares, overprotective villain dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catie_writes_things/pseuds/catie_writes_things
Summary: Everything Gabriel Agreste has done has been for his family. If only Adrien could understand that.





	Mistrust

Adrien’s name came up on the screen of his phone, and Gabriel answered the call before the first ring had even finished. “Where are you,” he demanded without preamble. He’d known his son might need some space to process everything he’d told him, but staying out all night with no word was not what Gabriel had had in mind. He’d been on the brink of sending an akuma after him again, promise or no promise.

 

“Don’t worry,” Adrien said flatly. “I’m fine. I spent the night at a friend’s house.”

 

Gabriel’s grip tightened on his phone as he turned to face the window. “Which friend?”

 

“I’ve been thinking about everything you said,” Adrien went on, ignoring his question. “And I’m not sure you need the miraculous to find Mom.” His son took a deep breath, a harsh, static sound over the phone. “What really happened to her?”

 

Gabriel didn’t answer. There were things he couldn’t tell his son, even now. There was a tense moment of silence. “Which friend are you with?” he finally asked again.

 

“Well,” Adrien said bitterly. “If you can still have your secrets, I can still have mine.”

 

Gabriel frowned at his son’s uncharacteristic attitude. He cast about for something else to say. “You should consider very carefully what I asked of you,” he said warningly. “I’m still willing to uphold my end of the bargain.”

 

It was Adrien’s turn to fall uncomfortably silent, but Gabriel was content that at least it wasn’t an immediate rejection. “I’ll think about it,” his son finally said in a very small voice. “But I’m not telling you where I am,” he insisted more firmly. “And I’m not coming home.” With those final words of defiance, Adrien disconnected the call.

 

Gabriel frowned, but didn’t bother trying to call his son back. The conversation had been long enough to get a trace. Tossing his phone aside, he went to his computer and pulled up the results. The tracer had narrowed his location down to a small radius in the 21st arrondissement. He wasn’t with the Bourgeois girl, then, or his friend with the headphones.

 

Pulling up Adrien’s class roster, Gabriel cross-referenced the addresses of his classmates with the neighborhood in question. Marinette Dupain-Cheng came up as the only result. The name rang a bell. He searched for her across Adrien’s social media, and recognized the dark-haired girl that came up in a handful of pictures as the same one who had been erroneously identified as Adrien’s girlfriend by his crazed fans.

 

If this was who his son had gone to, could there be something to those rumors after all? Gabriel immediately shook his head, dismissing the idea. Adrien wasn’t dating anyone. He didn’t have the time. Gabriel had seen to that.

 

He flipped through the pictures, looking for some clue as to what the connection was. Adrien didn’t seem to be particularly close friends with her, for there weren’t many photographs of them together, and most showed them in a larger group of students. Gabriel paused at the one picture that was just the two of them.

 

It was clear from the angle that Adrien had taken the picture himself. One arm was stretched out in front of him, obviously holding his phone, and the other was thrown around the girl’s shoulders as if he had impulsively dragged her into the frame with him. The girl looked flustered and clearly hadn’t been prepared to have her picture taken. She was looking down, her head turned away from Adrien in embarrassment.

 

She was wearing red post earrings.

 

They weren’t a very distinctive design, but Gabriel certainly hoped he would recognize  _ that _ pair of earrings when he saw them. And he’d been right about Adrien’s ring, in the end. Perhaps his son had merely been playing coy when he’d asked him about Ladybug’s identity. Why else would he choose to run to this girl, who was by all appearances only an acquaintance of his from school?

 

But had Adrien gone to her to conspire against him, or to accomplish the task Gabriel had given him? It sounded like his son wasn’t even sure himself. This was a delicate situation, which required just the right touch. An additional show of trust, but one that also served as a reminder of who held the cards.

 

Reaching for his phone again, he paged Nathalie and told her to gather together Adrien’s things. He would allow his son to stay with his friend’s family for a time, provided he met certain reasonable conditions. But it wouldn’t do to have the boy going about ill-dressed.

 

* * *

 

Adrien called him again the next morning, in keeping with the terms of their agreement.

 

“Adrien,” Gabriel greeted, more gently than last time. “Have you made any progress?”

 

He heard his son sigh, though whether it was in sadness or frustration was hard to say over the phone. “Listen, Dad,” Adrien began. Gabriel blinked. Adrien had only called him  _ Father _ for years. The image of a gap-toothed, tow-headed seven-year-old boy came to him unbidden. “I’ve talked to...to Ladybug,” his son went on. “And using the miraculous the way you want to would be really dangerous.”

 

“I see,” Gabriel said darkly. “So instead of doing what I asked, you betrayed my trust.”

 

“Don’t,” Adrien said firmly. “Don’t try to accuse me, like I’m the one who’s done something wrong here. You’re the one who puts people’s lives in danger almost every day.”

 

“And as I have already explained,” Gabriel replied patiently, flipping idly through the file on his computer of everything he’d gathered about Marinette Dupain-Cheng over the last twenty-four hours. “You have the power to change all that. Is it my fault if you refuse to try?”

 

“I am trying,” Adrien insisted. He sounded petulant. Perhaps, under the pressure, he was reverting to immature habits in more ways than one. “You’re not listening to me,” he all but whined, as if to confirm his father’s assessment.

 

“I may have expected too much from you,” Gabriel admitted in disappointment. He closed out of the Dupain-Cheng file and pulled up the footage from Ladybug and Chat Noir’s disastrous first interview on prime time television, playing it on mute. Even without the sound, it was clear that while Ladybug might have played the coquette, his son had only ever been open, even if boyishly inept, in his affections for his fellow superhero. Gabriel should have taken that into account.

 

“Yeah, well,” came Adrien’s sulky reply, “the feeling is mutual.” Once again, he disconnected the call without saying goodbye. Gabriel frowned at his phone, the screen now dark. His son’s attitude really had taken a turn for the worse.

 

On his computer screen, the clip from the talk show had played to the end, and the next video file had followed. It was news footage of Ladybug catching Adrien as he fell from the top of the Montparnasse tower. Gabriel paused the video just before she set him down on solid ground. Adrien’s eyes were fixed on his rescuer. He hadn’t transformed, even at the risk of his own life, because he had such faith in her.

 

But it was the ineptitude of Gabriel’s own minion that had put Adrien in that perilous situation in the first place. That was enough to give him pause, when he wanted nothing more than to send an army of akumas, if such a thing were only possible, to storm the Dupain-Cheng house and bring his son back home, with or without the other miraculous.

 

Gabriel closed the video file, hitting the touch screen with more force than necessary, and pulled back up the photograph that had initially sparked his suspicions. Adrien’s smiling face beamed at him, and the girl’s red earrings glinted tantalizingly, as they had the day before. Adrien had said he was trying.

 

One more day, Gabriel decided. This girl, Ladybug or not, was apparently someone important to his son. She could have Adrien for one more day, and then, if he still had nothing to show for his efforts, his son was coming home, one way or another.

 

* * *

 

The following day was Saturday, and Adrien’s call did not come at the usual time. When Gabriel tried calling him, he only got his voicemail. He didn’t bother to leave a message. His son knew what he wanted.

 

He might have simply slept in, Gabriel tried to reassure himself. Normally, Adrien got up just as early on Saturday as he did during the week, to spend at least an hour practicing the piano before any photoshoots he had to do. But the Dupain-Cheng household might not be keeping him to such a rigorous schedule.

 

He tried to get some work done while he waited for the call, but he was too distracted to even finish a sketch. He kept checking and re-checking his phone all morning, even though he knew perfectly well it had not rung. At noon, he sent Nathalie to check in on things, while he tried calling Adrien again. Voicemail, the same as before. This time, he left a message.

 

“This isn’t amusing, Adrien,” he scolded, rolling the pencil he had been sketching with between his fingers. “I know you haven’t forgotten the terms on which I allowed you to stay with your friend. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to provoke me into-”

 

A low beeping tone sounded in his ear, informing him he had an incoming call. Hastily, he ended the voicemail message so he could answer it. But it was only Nathalie, calling to report in.

 

Gabriel swiped angrily at the green icon to take the call. “What is my son playing at?” he demanded.

 

“He’s not here,” Nathalie said calmly. Gabriel’s grip on the pencil tightened, and he felt it snap. “According to the girl’s parents, she and Adrien went to the movies.”

 

It was a plausible explanation for why Adrien might not be answering his phone now, but not for why he wouldn’t have called that morning. And Gabriel had his doubts about the story anyway. They might have told the girl’s parents that’s what they were doing, but he didn’t see how a movie date would figure into Adrien’s efforts either to fulfill the task he had given him, or to subvert his plans. No, his son was surely up to something, and the girl was an accomplice in it, wittingly or unwittingly.

 

“Find out what theater they went to,” Gabriel ground out, dropping the broken pencil into the trash bin by his desk. “And then make sure he’s really there.”

 

“Understood,” Nathalie replied. Gabriel ended the call. There was someone, at least, who could be relied upon to do what she was told.

 

He drummed his fingers against the desk for a moment, then pushed back his chair forcefully and stood. He was halfway across the room to the secret passageway when his phone rang again. It was Adrien at last.

 

“How was the movie?” Gabriel asked sarcastically.

 

But Adrien didn’t take the bait. “Stop sending Nathalie to spy on me,” he said accusingly. “Aren’t you good enough at doing that yourself?”

 

“What makes you think,” Gabriel replied, voice cold with anger, “that you are in any position to make demands of me?”

 

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds, before Adrien answered boldly, “Because I know the one thing you want almost as much as the miraculous is for me to come home.” Gabriel frowned at that  _ almost. _ There was no comparing the two goals, couldn’t his son see that? They were one and the same, bringing the family back together, keeping them safe. “And I know you’ll do whatever it takes to get what you want.”

 

“Do you think I have no other way of getting you back,” Gabriel said in frustration, marching the rest of the way over to the portrait of his wife, “besides indulging in these childish games of yours?”

 

“Not without breaking your promise,” Adrien pointed out.

 

Gabriel laid his free hand against the painting, but did not press the hidden trigger mechanism. “The promise to which you refer,” he said slowly, letting his son absorb every word, “was in fact only a deal. If you don’t uphold your end, I don’t have to uphold mine.”

 

“I told you,” Adrien said, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice. “I’m trying to find another way to get her back. But you can’t use the miraculous the way you want to. It’s too dangerous. Whatever you do with it-”

 

“Is that what Ladybug told you?” Gabriel cut him off. He all but spat the superhero’s name.

 

“So what if it is?” Adrien replied defensively. “I trust her.”

 

Once again, it was Ladybug that his son trusted, Ladybug he listened to, even when he knew she was keeping his mother from him. Gabriel couldn’t see what she had done to inspire such blind loyalty. “That may be your mistake,” he observed darkly.

 

There was a long silence. “No,” Adrien said at last. “My mistake was thinking you’d ever listen to me.” And for the third time in a row, his son hung up on him.

 

Gabriel returned his phone to his breast pocket, and pressed the hidden buttons on the painting. He’d given Adrien enough chances. The hands-off approach wasn’t working. It was time to be more proactive.

 

* * *

 

It was Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s mother who had been akumatized this time, after Nathalie had riled her up with rude questions and condescending remarks. Unfortunately, she had proven no more successful than any of her predecessors, utterly failing to capture Chat Noir before Ladybug neutralized the akuma. Nooroo whimpered pathetically after Gabriel detransformed, but Gabriel ignored the kwami and returned to his atelier, calling up the Ladybug and Chat Noir files on his computer again. Nothing was working. He’d need to come up with yet another strategy…

 

Yet the hours he spent, well into the night, reviewing everything he knew or suspected and turning over ways to use it proved fruitless. All possibilities amounted to more of the same: send another akuma, which Ladybug would most likely thwart, or convince Adrien to cooperate on his own, which would only become more difficult as the boy grew more stubborn. Another effect of Ladybug’s meddlesome influence, no doubt.

 

His brooding was interrupted as the doors flew open, slamming against the wall, and Adrien himself stormed into the room. Gabriel noticed immediately that he wasn’t wearing his ring.

 

“This has to stop,” Adrien declared.

 

Gabriel crossed the room in an instant, stopping just short of grabbing his son by both shoulders. “I agree,” he said.

 

“You’re not getting the miraculous,” Adrien insisted, his voice quavering with emotion. “But you can have me.”

 

“You’re agreeing to come home?” Gabriel asked in surprise. It couldn’t be that easy. After three days of defiance, his son would willingly come to him now?

 

“I’ll come home,” Adrien confirmed. “I’ll follow all your rules. I won’t even go to school anymore, if you don’t want me to.” He swallowed, blinked, and all the boldness was gone from him, replaced with only desperate pleading. “But you have to leave Marinette and her family alone.”

 

Gabriel took both his son’s hands in his own and turned them over, examining the bare fingers. “You still think you can make demands,” he said softly.

 

“Father, please,” Adrien begged. “What you did to her mother...Marinette was so scared…”

 

“Does she know you’ve renounced your miraculous?” Gabriel asked. Adrien blinked at him in surprise and...was that a hint of fear? “Ladybug, I mean,” he clarified. Was it relief, or merely resolved confusion that softened his son’s features?

 

“She’ll find someone else to wield it,” Adrien said. Gabriel noted that this was not actually an answer to his question. “Anyone can be Chat Noir.”

 

“So now, instead of having one of the two miraculous we need, we have none,” Gabriel summarized, not letting go of Adrien’s hands. He was further from obtaining the power he needed than he had been before he had revealed the truth to his son. Had this all been a mistake?

 

“But I’m here,” Adrien reminded him. “Ladybug will keep looking for another way to find Mom, and you won’t have to worry about me trying to run away anymore.”

 

Gabriel’s grip on his hands tightened. That was not an inconsiderable gain, on its own, especially after the last few days, if Adrien could truly be relied upon to stay put. “You will stay here with me, even if I continue my efforts to obtain the miraculous?” Gabriel challenged.

 

“Ladybug will stop you,” Adrien said confidently. “Like she always does. Just leave Marinette out of it.”

 

“Answer the question,” Gabriel admonished, growing impatient with his son’s evasive responses.

 

Adrien looked up at him in silence, more helpless than defiant. “Yes,” he finally said in a small voice, barely more than a whisper. “As long as Marinette’s family is safe, I’ll stay here.” His shoulders sagged and his eyes dropped to the floor. “Ladybug can handle the rest without me.”

 

It didn’t escape Gabriel’s notice how Adrien spoke of his friend and the superhero as two different people. Was this still more dissembling? Did Adrien not realize the two were one and the same? Or were Gabriel’s suspicions unfounded? He couldn’t see why Adrien would offer himself as a hostage for the Dupain-Cheng girl’s safety if she were Ladybug, and Adrien was so certain that his father was no match for her. But if she were not Ladybug, why had Adrien turned to her in his moment of crisis?

 

“Very well,” Gabriel said. “I agree to your terms.” Whatever the case may be, neither Ladybug nor Marinette Dupain-Cheng would have anything further to do with his son. If that put the miraculous that much further out of his reach, it was a tradeoff he would have to accept for Adrien’s security and obedience. Gabriel had gambled with telling him the truth, and now it was time to cut his losses.

 

He hugged his son, and Adrien did not push him away this time, though he didn’t return the hug either. “Go get some rest now,” Gabriel told him gently. “We’ll discuss your school arrangements tomorrow.”

 

Adrien nodded, wished him a perfunctory goodnight, and left the room. Gabriel stood in the doorway for a moment, watching his son make his way up the stairs to his room, each step heavy with defeat. It was better this way, Gabriel reminded himself. Adrien might not be happy right now, but he was home, he was safe, and he would attempt no more foolish acts of rebellion.

 

When Adrien had disappeared into his bedroom, Gabriel shut the door, turning to face the wide, empty room of his atelier once more. The portrait of his wife smiled serenely as ever at him from the far wall. Yes, his losses today were not nearly as bad as they could have been.


End file.
